San Francisco pitcher Jim Barr knew Candlestick Park. Did he know AND love the ballpark? I quizzed him on three subjects. He replied:

“CANDLESTICK — yes, it was COLD and windy. My thought process was: this is my job, what I am expected to do, and it was the MAJOR LEAGUES. Yeah, it was nice to pitch on the road, in better weather and a lot more fans. But pitching at home, well, it was YOUR HOME PARK.”

Barr registered three near no-no’s in his career, a trio of two-hitters. Regrets?

“Honestly, I never thought of a NO-HITTER. All the games were reasonably close, so winning was the #1 priority.”

Barr was the pitcher who got away, being drafted six times before turning pro. I asked him if it was more than money that caused him to turn away major league chances.

“I signed with the Giants because I was graduating from college. I didn’t sign earlier because I had a very good college degree on the line and all the other offers couldn’t make up the difference of my college degree.”

Related

Leave a Reply

ABOUT ME

Tom Owens has been collecting baseball autographs by mail since 1972 (thanks to "Bullet" Bob Veale). As "Thomas S. Owens," he's written more than 50 books, many about sports or collectibles. Write to Tom at: BaseballByTheLetters [at] gmail [dot] com.